It was not pretty … it was not rugby!

Well South Africa have won the world cup … but rugby was not the winner!

As I said in my last blog … mauling and brawling is not rugby, but as far back as I can remember South Africa have been able to maul and brawl, England dictated the nature of the game, it would be played amongst the forwards with as much brawling as possible. That South Africa complied was a surprise but perhaps not surprising as they obviously believed they could match the England scrummaging power, would be better in the lineouts and anyone’s equal in a brawl. Perhaps, the most impressive part of the South African game was that the 15 who started finished. Obviously they were able to last out 80 minutes of really tough stuff.

My end impression is, that until the top teams in the World … and I don’t rate South Africa as the World Champions, because they won the trophy … start playing the kind of rugby South Africa played in the games leading to the final, or that Argentina played against France in the play off for third place, rugby has a long route to travel before it recaptures the spirit of Webb Ellis and becomes the great game it should be.

However, congratulations to South Africa for beating England at their own game, but, please move on and start playing the beautiful game of rugby.

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